A group of Duval County Public Schools students are hoping their love of theater can brighten the lives of orphans in Kenya this summer.

Fourteen students from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Fletcher High School and Stanton College Preparatory School are gearing up for a two-week trip to Bondo, Kenya, to put on a theater camp for 23 orphans between the ages of 7 and 14.

The idea for the trip struck Douglas Anderson junior Chelsey Cain while she was thinking about an orphan she sponsored in Kenya.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if I got to meet Asia and wouldn’t it be cool if I could go over there and show her theater?” said Chelsey, 17, recalling the group’s origin. “And my mom was like ‘I think we can do that.’ ”

And Theatre on a Mission was born.

Chelsey and her mom, Shelley Cain, began reaching out to friends and other students studying theater or theater design and students who just love the performing arts.

It didn’t take long for Chelsey to find students wanting to join in.

“When they told me I could go to Kenya and not only build but work with the kids to teach them, I thought that would be awesome,” said Spencer Yeoman, 17, a junior at Douglas Anderson, who had been looking for a way to use his theater production skills to help others.

Yeoman is studying theater design at Douglas Anderson and will help with building projects and stage design while in Kenya.

While the word mission is in the group’s name, the effort is non-religious and includes students of different faiths working together.

“I think it will make it an even better trip than if it were people who thought the exact same,” Yeoman said. “I think the religious diversity really brings something to the trip.”

The trip is going to cost about $3,500 a student for a total of $49,000. So far, they’ve raised $500 but are determined to continue raising funds.

The students are setting up gigs to perform around Jacksonville for donations, including working with Winn-Dixie and a scheduled show on March 3 on the Riverside Arts Market’s opening day. They gave a series of holiday performances on the market’s last day.

“We’ll like wash floors,” Chelsey said. “We’re willing to work for it.”

The students are organizing the trip with their parents’ help, a few of who have done mission work in Kenya. The students are learning from teachers at Stanton and Douglas Anderson how to incorporate the Kenyan children into a play and how to coordinate a two-week theater camp for beginners.

“Theater just brings you another level of confidence,” Chelsey said. “And it will just open them up and maybe find who they are a little bit.”

Rachel Jaffe, a junior at Stanton, believes she and her friends will learn more from the orphans than the orphans will learn from them. She expects the trip to change her life.

“I think I’m going to lose my materialism and come back to the states and be like a totally different person,” she said. “I’m going to learn so much from these children, it’s incomprehensible.”

The trip will occur sometime in July-August. Donations can be arranged by calling Shelley Cain at (904) 449-6019.

It's so amazing that these kids from different religions and ethnic backgrounds are working together to share their passion for theatre and children. They will be wonderful ambassadors for Jacksonville too!

These are amazing kids and are willing to do whatever it takes to take a theatre camp to the children at the Foundation Stone Ministries Orphanage! If you would like to donate to this group donations can be made to FSMglobal.org just note that it is for Theatre On A Misson!